Review: New NECA Products for ‘The Hunger Games’

Posted August 24, 2012 by Crystal in Merchandise

Coinciding with the DVD/BR release of ‘The Hunger Games’ movie, NECA has released a new line of Hunger Games products just in time for back to school. We received a batch of items to review so that you can get a closer look at some of the new line to decide if it’s something you’d like to buy online without getting your hands on it in an actual store. Keep your eye on Mockingjay.net for giveaways of these items, all of which can be purchased at HollywoodVideo.com!

The first Katniss action figure had Katniss wearing her Arena jacket. This time, NECA’s action figure has Katniss in her training center outfit. I don’t really like her arms or her face but I also admit that she looks much better in person than in this photo I took. Still, what bothers me is the extreme difference between the photos of the doll used as a selling point and the actual look of the figure.

On the back, there’s a photo of the action figures available (Peeta, Katniss, Rue, and Cato) and they look how I think they should look, with seamless arms and a much softer expression on Katniss’ face. Yet the photos of the figures are not actually how they look. It’s misleading to me and if I bought one, I’d be pretty mad to get this instead of what’s pictured.

Her outfit is where this action figure excels, as I love that really captured her body shape accurately and the way her clothing is wrinkled in all the right places is kind of amazing. Even her knee area has the appropriate pulls in clothing and her shoes are insanely well detailed. I know they want the arms to be adjustable, but the joints make her arms look swollen from the elbows down.

The action figure is for 14 and up and comes with three silver arrows and a silver bow.

Even though I don’t have an iPhone, I thought this lenticular phone case was really cool. I didn’t take a video of it, but tilt it back and forth and the mockingjay shifts around. This one looked great for any Hunger Games fan with an iPhone!

This is a set of magnetic bookmarks, which I think are pretty cool. If only I wasn’t bothered by the quotes on the back. The back of Peeta’s bookmark is “Remember, they already love you.” which is a quote by Cinna to Katniss, not Peeta. The back of one of the Katniss bookmarks says “I’m sure they didn’t notice anyone but you.” which is a quote from Peeta in the books, though they got the word “anyone” wrong. I do like the design of Gale and Peeta’s, which looks as though they’re burning right off the bookmark.

This is the District 12 Locket, which is by far my favorite out of all the merchandise that came in. It’s got amazingly accurate detail and is a beautiful metallic color. It comes with a little coal charm on it as well. I personally wouldn’t wear this because the images inside the locket make it a little too young for me, but they do have a keychain version that I’d love.

Here’s the inside of the locket. Sadly, the pictures were scratched and I can assure you that’s what it looked like right out of the package. However, I still think the outside looks amazing. It’s actually pretty heavy too, so I’m curious as to how it feels wearing it.

All of the following items are Walmart exclusive items.

This is the Katniss District 12 charm bracelet, which comes with six charms including two orange pink beads, a District 12 metal charm, a mockingjay metal charm, a coal bead, and a charm with a photo of Katniss. Although the charms are cute, the one downside I see is that the chain is quite bulky and the large chain links really stood out on my wrist. That aside though, I like the beads and the metal charms.

This photo contains three items: two portfolios and a composition tablet. I flat out love the portfolios. There isn’t much to a portfolio except the front, which as you can see, looks pretty awesome. I love the “World Will Be Watching” poster the best out of them all, so it’s no surprise I love it. The two came packaged together, but I’m guessing these would be sold individually in stores. There are six different designs, but after looking at them all I like these two the best. The pockets are on the bottom and on the left, there are spaces for you to write your name and school subject.

The composition tablet is college ruled and features a burning District 12 seal. The inside covers are blank, so if you’re one of those kids that loved to fill out the silly blank class schedule that never seemed to fit your school, you’re in luck, because now you can just design you own!

This is the nylon back sack and I’m not loving the printing quality. In online photos it looks pretty good, but in person the printing looks just awful. I think you can see what I mean by the image. I suspect their photo is a cloth bag and the actual product is made out of nylon, thus explaining the difference in color quality.

Lastly, there are these dog tags, which I didn’t actually take out of the packaging. It comes as a set of two, with the District 12 stone seal on one and ‘The Hunger Games’ on the other.

That’s it for our fan kit! Hope you’ve enjoyed my review of these products. Out of all these products I happily recommend the folders, tablet, iphone case, and District 12 locket. Keep reading mockingjay.net and you could see these items up for contests and giveaways soon!